JNS.org – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday suggested that Israel reinstate the tradition of military parades on the country’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut). Israel held such parades from 1949-1968, and then once more to mark the Jewish state’s 25th independence anniversary in 1973.

At a Yom Ha’atzmaut event in Jerusalem that was held to honor 120 outstanding Israeli soldiers, Netanyahu said, “There was something of a revival, of independence, and that came across in parades. There were military parades in Jerusalem. I remember seeing a cannon, I saw a tank for the first time. I saw soldiers. It moved me enormously.”

“You know what, I have a proposal,” he said, Haaretz reported. “My friends, let’s renew the parades in Jerusalem. A military parade on Independence Day in Jerusalem — that’s the basis of our independence, those soldiers.”